Moscow arrests Kaliningrad resident with alleged Azov ties planning to attack Baltic Fleet

Russia’s Federal Security Service has reported the arrest of a resident of Kaliningrad, a decades-old territory under Moscow’s control that lies between Lithuania and Poland, with alleged links to the Ukrainian Azov Battalion who planned to organize “acts of terrorism” in the Russian Baltic Fleet and at the Khrabrovo airport.

According to the Russian intelligence service, the 55-year-old man was part of the Ukrainian ultra-nationalist Azov Battalion. He intended to commit a terrorist act and then flee to the territory of a neighboring state, as reported by Kommersant.

Russian authorities said they found in his hideout a homemade explosive device, as well as correspondence with the Azov Battalion and literature and symbols of this grouping, Interfax news agency reported.

The Russian Intelligence Public Relations Center has released a video with part of the interrogation of the detainee, which shows that he contacted representatives of Ukraine via Telegram.

Kaliningrad is a 225-square-kilometer territory located between Lithuania and Poland that Russia seized from the latter country after World War II. It is totally isolated from Russia, which had forced Moscow to reach agreements with Brussels to facilitate the transit of people and goods.